It's not often that you find a mean person. Everyone, including the teachers, are kind to one another. The types of people who constantly put others down won't fit in at my college. Everywhere you go, someone says "hi" to you, asks how you are, and usually "what can I be praying for you about?". Even the other day as I was running on the track and crying about it, a girl walking by on the other side of the fence yelled "you can do it!" And I promise you that if that were to happen at any other local track, I would've just gotten laughed at.
2. The professors actually care about you.
All my professorsat my college are super nice and caring. They believe in me, and after coming from a school where if you didn't know an answer you got laughed at by students and your teacher, that's always nice to have. When I got sick and emailed my professors that I wouldn't be in class, one of them sent me a nice email back saying they were sorry I wasn't feeling good and gave me tips on how to get better. In the real world, most people wouldn't care how you were feeling they'd just want you to show up. My professors also take time out of their busy day to help students on assignments they don't get. For Old Testament, the professor has study nights before the midterms and finals, and also editing nights for essays so students can fully understand the material, and also so they can pass. Most of the time the real world laughs while you're down and doesn't help you if you don't understand something. Finding people who take time out of their day for you, are special to find.
3. In times of tragedy, we unite.
Recently our school has lost two kind-hearted students that everyone loved. When students and faculty received the email of the news, most wept and the others had nothing to say. Classes were cancelled and a prayer time was set up later that night. When people are broken, they tend to isolate themselves. At my college, we stuck together, prayed with one another, cried with one another, and set up support systems with faculty to get through it. The football team even got new helmets to honor their missed team mates. You don't get that in the real world. In times of tragedy, we tend to only think of our own family and not others. We try our best to make sure only our loved ones are okay but we should really be focused on everyone. If we're supposed to love everyone, we need to support everyone through the tragic times.
4. You're not judged.
If I were to go to class with no makeup, sweats, crazy hair, and a really baggy t-shirt, no one would even give me a second glance. Nobody at my college judges how you decide to dress or if you choose to wear makeup. You're still treated the same and it doesn't make you any less liked. We accept the flaws of others and choose to love them; in the real world, you're judged by every look you choose to do and not always in a kind way either. You're always going to have those people that think you're weird, but my college accepts you for who you are because that's the way that God made you and we love that.
5. Yes, there are cliques, but you don't have to "stick with the status quo".
In High School Musical, you have to pick a clique and stay there and when you get out of it, it creates chaos. Here, we do normally hangout within our cliques such as, cheer, football, basketball, theatre, but if someone had come sit with another time at lunch, it wouldn't matter and they'd be treated the same. There's a softball player that lives in my hall that normally hangs out with cheerleaders, and no one minds. She comes to our Starbucks runs and even our movie nights. No one is treated badly if they're not in a certain clique either. The "jocks" are still kind and friendly to the theatre kids and even those who aren't involved in the activities.
